In April 2017, when ABC announced the resurrection of “Roseanne" – the highest-rated show on TV from 1989 to 1990 – to its lineup, few people publicly questioned the decision.
Perhaps it makes sense from a business perspective, as President Donald Trump's political ascendance is seemingly impacting the entertainment sphere. According to E-Poll Market Research's July 2016 analysis of favorite TV series, Republicans "prefer programs that are family-friendly, funny, plot-driven or have storylines that involve 'good vs. evil.'" The findings suggest that Trump voters' tastes may differ from what we're seeing on TV now.
But when President Donald Trump made a point to call Roseanne Barr and congratulate her on the series return episode’s high ratings – and subsequently praised the show’s success in a speech, saying "it was about us"– he mounted the show’s place in the current culture war, as Salon's Erin Keane writes.
As Keane indicates, "Now 'Roseanne' can’t possibly be just a TV show. It’s going to be the blue-collar story we talk about, no matter how many other shows today . . . also depict the struggles of a struggling America."
Perhaps, in this way, it is clear why ABC would bring the series back more than 20 years after it went off the air – and nearly 30 years after its original broadcast debut.
On Monday night, Barr, the comedian and vocal Trump supporter, appeared on "The Tonight Show," where she answered questions from host Jimmy Fallon about the criticism she has received for endorsing Trump.
“Oh, yeah. People are mad about that. But you know, I don’t give a f**k,” Barr told Fallon, receiving a large amount of laughter and applause from the in-studio audience at New York's iconic 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
“I mean, everybody had to choose for themselves, according to their own conscience, who they felt was the lesser of two evils,” she continued. “You know, everybody chose that, so I’m not going to put anybody down who didn’t vote like me. This is America. It’s a free country, and when you weigh it all together, I just felt like we needed a whole new thing. All the way. Bottom to top.”
This is not the first time Barr, who has insisted that she was the first person to tell Donald Trump to run for president in 2016, has forayed into presidential politics.
In 2012, the comedian waged a dedicated campaign to be the Green Party’s nominee for president. Despite her committed efforts, Jill Stein eventually scored the third-party nomination. But Barr, the fiery populist, refused to give up. She instead ran on the Peace and Freedom ticket and managed to get on the ballot in three states, earning more than 67,000 votes on her way to a sixth-place finish on Election Day, according to the Los Angeles Times.
In addition to claiming she encouraged Trump to pursue the highest public office, Barr has previously said her 2012 campaign inspired some 2016 presidential frontrunners.
"Hillary, Bernie and Trump — they're all borrowing heavily from my 2012 campaign," she said in an interview with the Times.
The legendary female comic seems to be well aware that her reboot is riding on the tails of the Trump Train.
In May of last year, Page Six reported that Barr was overheard at ABC’s upfront telling her co-star John Goodman that she believes the current political landscape and the show's comeback are connected. Goodman allegedly remarked to Barr that, “I never thought in a million years we’d be back,” to which she responded, “I did. As soon as I saw the election results, I knew we’d be back.”
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